Horse Heroes: Ziggy
Ziggy has never been a straightforward horse, but he’s always been a fancy mover. Owner Rachel Jurgens remembers that even when she got him off the track, he was easy to ride on the flat at home. But away from home, the issues started to show up: as an event horse, his dressage scores were never ...
Olympic Memories with Gina Miles
“My whole journey has been a series of interconnected circles,” says Gina Miles.
The central compass point of those circles has been the Olympics. The Games are what set the Californian on her path, and where she reached her pinnacle - the individual silver medal in Hong Kong in 2008.
...Crossing Oceans with U.S. Olympian Tiana Coudray
Plenty of event riders have chosen to cross oceans and base themselves thousands of miles away from “home” in pursuit of their career dreams - look at the likes of New Zealanders Sir Mark Todd and Andrew Nicholson, and now Tim and Jonelle Price, while Andrew Hoy, Clayton Fredericks and of course ...
Horse Heroes: Nereo
“He looks as grey as I am,” jokes Andrew Nicholson. Nereo’s long, chestnut face may show signs of age, with greying circles around his wise eyes, but he still slopes out to the field every day with that unmistakably rangey, athlete’s stride. It is four years almost exactly since he won Badminton,...
Feeling Fit with Will Faudree
“I’d love to be fitter, but I don’t have the time.”
So say all of us. We know that the physically fitter we are, the better we ride - and the better our horses perform, but actually getting on and doing the exercise necessary rarely happens. Life is busy, and there are many demands on our...
Horse Heroes: Cool Mountain
How many CCI5* winners and double World Equestrian Games medalists end up teaching an un-horsey teenager to ride? It wouldn’t be a long list, and in fact, there may only be one - Cool Mountain.
It’s been 11 years since the son of Primitive Rising made two successful trips across the Atlant...
Mellisa Warden: Making the Most of a Difficult Situation
In July 2019, while visiting my military husband in Germany, I hit a trolley line on a bike and went flying which broke my ankle and dislocated my foot. I was rushed to surgery and while being wheeled back, I was given a 50 percent chance of losing my foot. I spent two weeks in the hospital with ...
Will Faudree Finds the Silver Lining
On a recent conference call with my fellow Carolina International committee members, we were discussing the aftermath of our gutting cancelation. I asked Lefreda Williams if there was this much hysteria and fear during the Flu epidemic of 1918, to which she replied in true Lefreda form, followed ...
Bridging the Gap: Don't Forget To Have Fun
Usually at the beginning of the year I'm pretty excited about getting back out in competitions on my horses. This year was no different, with the notable exception that I was shuffling around my upper level horses and starting out only on the lower level ones. I was still eager to get back into c...
Creating Your Own Bravery
One day Denny and I were talking, I can’t quite remember what started the conversation, but I said I do not think of myself as being that brave. He looked at me like I was nuts, I think he even said, but you went advanced! My response was that I am brave enough, but I am not crazy brave
Bridging the Gap: Be Relentless
My dad used to say when I was growing up that if you looked up the word relentless in the dictionary there would be a picture of me next to it. I think at the time he meant my relentlessness in constantly asking for a horse (and everything else that went along with it), but over time I've begun t...